TROUT sat opposite me on the train
We were, strangers passing time just talking.
She said. "SPEED IS EVERYTHING."
She stretched out her tattooed fingers.
She had etched TROUT on her right hand
Sometimes I think about her.
If she's not dead shell probably be a granny.
If you meet her say HELLO from me.
Love her smiling eyes.
An old classmate said that to me after rehearsal
at the Playhouse in Dunedin in the early sixties.
We were sitting in the stalls in the half-dark;
the thick padded old seats squeaked as we breathed.
I think I might have gone along just to chat her up.
I had no interest in the play at all.
Just noticed her name on the billboard
& impulse went in looking for her.
So long ago now I don't even remember her name.
What she said that afternoon has kept floating
around In my head popping up periodically.
An enduring echo from the past
dissolved into a backlog of peculiar memories.
Perhaps she was wise beyond her years.
Sometimes I wonder if she memorised that line
& loved to swirl it around in her mouth.
That day I just happened to be around to catch it.
That day I got more than I bargained for.